lauantai 14. toukokuuta 2011

Notes of a tour in Finland (Part II)

Teksti on julkaistu kirjassa The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction: containing original papers; historical narratives; biographical memoirs; manners and customs; topographical descriptions; sketches and tales; anecdotes; select extracts from New and Expensive works; poetry, original and selected; the Spirit of the Public Journals; Discoveries in The Arts and Sciences, etc. New Series. Vol IV. London 1843

The Finlanders are a rather undersized race of people, and a cavalcade of them, with their small carts and still smaller horses, might, without much strech of imagination, be taken for so many Orkney or Highland cottagers. At Borgs, where we slept, a pleasing anecdote is related of the late Emperor Alexander during his journey through Finland many years since. The Czar was, at an early hour of the morning, enjoying as usual his cigar at the hotel window, when he observed an old man advance and survey very inquisitively his travelling carriage. The sentinel on duty was about to repulse him, when the Emperor interfered, and familiarly inquired the object of his curiosity. The man proved to be the vehicle maker of the little town, and on the Emperor asking how he liked the carriage, he replied that it was “passably good” but not at all like he could have made it The Emperor's humour happening to be amused with the self-sufficiency of the obscure village cart-maker, ordered him to be furnished with everything needful for building a handsome carriage. The order was duly executed, and the carriage reached St Petersburg, where it had the merit of being very unlike all the others, and though not the most elegant, was no doubt the most curious, both from its history and form, in the imperial stables.

The small town of Fredericsham, through which we passed, is chiefly known by its having been the place in which the Swedish commissioners arranged the treaty, which, more than thirty years since, gave over Finland to Russia. The change which takes place in the appearance of the inhabitants on leaving that part of Finland which is still called Swedish is very marked. The half Calmuc, half Esquimaux features, the long beards, sheep-skin dresses, and the excessive filth and apathy of the Russian Finlanders, make indeed a very disagreeable impression on the stranger. Viburg, through which we next passed, was, at a remote period, colonized from Germany, and still bears traces of a style of building materially differing from the Russian, while in respect to language it is a little modem Babel, where four distinct tongues are very generally spoken by the inhabitants, viz., German, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian. The hotel at Viburg is so good, that it is one of the most desirable resting-places on the whole route from Abo to St Petersburg.

In Western Finland we met with moderate cleanliness, and always with extreme civility in the small posting inns where we stopped to rest or take meals; but after passing Viburg this ceased to be the case, and the horrors of a sleepless night passed in a miserable inn, about thirty miles from St Petersburg, will not readily be forgotten.

Eastern Finland is much more level in surface than the western district, and the same interminable pine forests meet the eye in every direction, without the agreeable variety afforded by mountain and valley in the latter.

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